ICANN has been advised of a deal to transfer all names in RegisterFly’s management from RegisterFly to an existing accredited Registrar with a demonstrated record of customer service. This would be a quick and effective solution to many of the problems that registrants are presently experiencing with RegisterFly. The deal, which has been confirmed with the registrar, is a commercial transaction (where the acquiring registrar has worked out a financial arrangement to take over names managed by RegisterFly).  ....Please read the rest on the ICANN BLOG

Someone had mentioned further down in the blog that they thought it would be GoDaddy.com that handles the transfer and it was also mentioned on this site.  I've also received a couple emails from users saying that GoDaddy was the one handling the bulk transfers of domain names.  While this has not yet been announced it makes sense that it would be GoDaddy with the amount of staff they have and their steady growth over the years.  We'll just have to look for that official announcement to come through one of these channels and hopefully they announce it soon.

Meanwhile, ICANN has really been working on bringing the domain industry and their registrars into compliance.  Recently ICANN did a Registrar Website Compliance Audit and reported this on their announcements.  This is a step in the right direction and this Registerfly debacle showed us all just how vulnerable the industry is.  While ICANN may have moved a little slower than we would have liked them to in the beginning, they have now not only done the audit but they are also putting together a central system for escrowing all the data from the registrars with one company an they are accepting proposals to find a company that can do this.  Let's hope this company is not on of the existing registrars.

We'll keep you up to date as the news comes in!

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curious observer Registered | 2007-05-23 00:34:30 Well thought out statement, as usual Admin. I would like to thank you for offering a positive outlook in a situation that becomes more desperate for people by the day. Hopefully this whole RegisterFly fiasco will improve the domain ownership system in the future. Admin, I hope that you take pride in the fact that you've made a great site here. You've offered a place for the refugee's to gather, share information, and learn. Hopefully people will realize that there are still good people out there, still people who want to help out their fellow man, and expect little in return. Maybe a thank you would be all that is needed. I, for one, offer a sincere Thank You for all you've done.

admin - Thank you as well Super Administrator | 2007-05-23 09:57:08 Thank you as well for being a contributor to this site. It's all about helping each other. Together with the people on this site we've been able to provide an environment for the changes necessary. The thanks goes to everyone here who has taken the time and effort to get involved in the community. Thank you all!

LegalWorker - GODADDY to THE RESCUE - Registered | 2007-05-25 01:32:04 ================================================== ====- I have just received official notice from a member of the legal staff that helped broker, contractually the following upcoming Mass Bulk Domain Transfer deal arrangement. ICANN has officially authorized www.GoDaddy.com to act as the intermediary registry, to exclusively push via a Bulk Transfer all requested "stuck Zombie Domain Names" away from ... the troubled and scandalous ex-ICANN accredited Domain Registry www.Registerfly.com The ICANN accredited Registry www.GoDaddy.com shall act as an instrument of communication, to provide problem solving assistance to ICANN with there already existing "Concierge Service Dept" for Registerfly.com "Domain Name holders" including proxy,"Protectfly WHOIS Registrants" This long awaited development shall provide qualified Registerfly.com domain name owners ... the opportunity to stay with Godaddy.com or to transfer to any ICANN accredited Domain Name Registry of there choosing, as soon as the Transfer Interface is active online to perform this Global Public Service. A press release from ICANN with the Official Start Date is expected to be announced soon! ================================================== ==

domain_guy - godaddy has much to be desired Registered | 2007-05-23 01:32:48 Godaddy has done a good job marketing themselves out from the html box and into the real world. However, they have thier faults. It seems as per thier terms of service, they can own an expired domain 18 days past expiry. after a few thousand renews and transfers, I have allways thought there was a 45 day grace period. After 20 days my error, my former domain was pushed, renewed to another GD account that won a 2 week auction, with my same expiry date + 1 year, as opposed to a normal "new registration" reflecting a 45 day expiration. It was for my wife starting her own business. Even for sale today for $200 I wont feed into thier nonsence. I hope Godaddy, the AOL of registrars dont profit from this mess.

PPNSteve Registered | 2007-05-23 10:26:00 I personally don't really care who gets the RF db.. I only care that a) they release my domains for transfer, b) they do it without added cost to us, and c) they do it NOW!

servertransfert - re: godaddy has much to be des Registered | 2007-05-23 12:36:53 domain_guy wrote: Godaddy has done a good job marketing themselves out from the html box and into the real world. However, they have thier faults. It seems as per thier terms of service, they can own an expired domain 18 days past expiry. after a few thousand renews and transfers, I have allways thought there was a 45 day grace period. After 20 days my error, my former domain was pushed, renewed to another GD account that won a 2 week auction, with my same expiry date + 1 year, as opposed to a normal "new registration" reflecting a 45 day expiration. It was for my wife starting her own business. Even for sale today for $200 I wont feed into thier nonsence. I hope Godaddy, the AOL of registrars dont profit from this mess. Indeed, it is very important that Icann watches closely our domains in redemption or expired because some registrars are using it as a goldmine.

whizz - Progress, but when? Registered | 2007-05-23 13:00:10 So, what's the delay in ICANN announcing this? If there's a deal in place, we should know who it is with. Does ICANN understand the concept of response time and customer support? While I've had no problems with GoDaddy, one would think that ICANN might just be interested in user input before finalizing a deal. Of course, that would imply that ICANN was working for the good of the domain name holders ... In the meantime, we have been getting Authcodes out of RF and initiating transfer ourselves (never trust a large, slow moving organization to "help you" - sort of like expecting the government to help ...). Response time has been good on the codes but fixing other issues (like getting the right contact info reset) has taken follow up support tickets. Right now we have about a dozen names in the transfer process: contact info correct, completely unlocked (don't trust the RF management interface on that status ...) and transfer initiated from the receiving Registrar. What we haven't seen yet is the "ok to transfer" email from RF. Hopefully that system is still unbroken there and not now held up by the ICANN delay in announcing its deal. I'm counting on the ICANN deal restoring our lost and damaged domains that RF doesn't even respond about. However, I'm also expect to have to fight for them ... I wasn't born yesterday, after all. I agree, our Admin does a great job of balanced reporting re ICANN and ICANN should thank him for that. Others are not so kind to an organization that moved at a slothful pace and should have had escrow in place all along ... surprise, surprise - the "wizards" at ICANN actually thought the registry/registrar nightmare system they thought up and created could work without checks and balances. My only fear is: what's the next black hole that ICANN didn't think to cover ... and how will it bite us all?

domain_guy - A laugh on me. Registered | 2007-05-23 13:13:06 What was dumber than me letting a domain expire for 20 days and complaining about it? A: spending more time emailing ICANN do at least ansqwer a question about it. i want my .22c back!

cymoo - TAXABLE COMPENSATION Registered | 2007-05-25 16:47:22 Do you think we are going to be receiving U S currency compensation for all the illegal advertising profits that accrued from the extorted domain property during the time of our loss of our sites? Maybe they will apply the taxable profits that were made with the stolen property to the damage that has been done to our domain property during the high speed police chase. Just how much fun is it going to be getting back ALL THE BITES AND PIECES of our stolen property? For some of us this will be the first time we have every received back stolen property from the authorities. Of course I guess it is a little bit early to be thinking about COMPENSATION. Oh, I almost forgot. Thanks a lot (?) (??) (???) (????) (?????) etc.

SkipCard - I want to be encouraged, but.. Registered | 2007-05-23 17:28:19 reading the ICANN blog posting shows that this isn't the ICANN-arranged transfer, but a private deal by RegisterFly. As such, I would assume that we can't be sure of any of the nice ICANN-promised features and protections that would have come under their bulk-transfer procedure. From what we've learned in this whole process, there's nothing stopping RegisterFly from selling our domains to a registrar who will turn around and demand a ransom for control of them. Two things are further disturbing. The first of these is that RegisterFly may walk away from the deal with money. (Since the ICANN blog says it's a financial deal, I'm assuming that RegisterFly is not paying, but being paid.) The second disturbing point is that if the acquiring registrar is paying money to RegisterFly to acquire the domains, presumably they're going to want to make that money back. Since this isn't the ICANN-sponsored transfer, the money isn't going to come from ICANN. The only other source of revenue I can see is us, the domain holders.

John7 - Redemption & Expired Domains Registered | 2007-05-23 17:53:54 I wonder what about the names that went into redemption due to RF incompetent to renew? What will happen then? What about the expired domains? How will GoDaddy handles such situation? Will we be forced to renew the names there at GoDaddy?

EVENTHOLDER Registered | 2007-05-23 20:33:22 You Know I am reading this and realizing that unless we file more petitions with the FTC that we will lose the ability to gain access to each and everyone's individual account holder information proving the fraud that has gone on. Agian I feel we need to superceed the decisions of Icann and plead up to the Judge and Ftc to make the information available to the regsitrantys NO MATTER what situation the registrars think their acct is in...and IF this is the way it is then they cannot lock anyone out , nor hide behind their domain curtain with our properties.

EVENTHOLDER Registered | 2007-05-23 20:40:35 Also, with the rebuttal from Paypal that they have no liability for having their shopping cart ongoing on a site that has been shut down and the fact that they say, even with a receipt, that they have no liability for repayment since the 60 days THEY SAY is the limit, no matter it is fraud that RFLy Did Nothing, and the fact that they refuse to EVEN look into the receipt issue(I copied the receipt and sent it to them)...I say FORGET ABOUT EVER USING PAYPAL ON ANY OF YOUR TRANSACTIONS and certainly don't put it on your website...and what ever you do NEVER USE PAYPAL to renew, but, transfer, nothing, with your domains or hositng or anything...UNLESS PAYPAL WANTS TO START OFFERING UP CUSTOMER SERVICE and Gurarnties like every other shopping cart has to do. It is ridiculous to think that the FTC and states would allow PAYPAL to ignore BLATANT FRAUD REPORTED TO THEM.....I think you may have to add PAYPAL into the Class Action Suit..since theya re quoting,' PLease rad the fine print which says you agreed to this in order to make purchases on this site...no actually I didn't...I was thrust into their shopping cart on RFLY with no choice but to use PAypal since that was the only thing offered up.

domain_guy - another godaddy issue Registered | 2007-05-23 21:34:50 godaddy will hold every domain hostage with them for two months after a transfer in to them. It is standard procedure to prevent transfering out of a newly registered domain from the first year (created date). I have transfered a domain into godaddy about 1 month prior to expiry. I then wished to transfer it out. It was locked for two months forcing me to renew with godaddy against my will. That was after I decided to pull all of my names out. One last mohekan and I thought I had my hands washed of godaddy. It would seem that we should be able to get an account of our own with any registrar we want for the bulk transfer.

Phoenix - re: Progress, but when? Registered | 2007-05-23 21:44:58 whizz wrote: While I've had no problems with GoDaddy, one would think that ICANN might just be interested in user input before finalizing a deal. Of course, that would imply that ICANN was working for the good of the domain name holders ... A public consultation on it is a VERY BAD IDEA. It would lead to more delays.

Gene Steinberg - re: another godaddy issue Registered | 2007-05-24 02:25:45 domain_guy wrote: godaddy will hold every domain hostage with them for two months after a transfer in to them. It is standard procedure to prevent transfering out of a newly registered domain from the first year (created date). I have transfered a domain into godaddy about 1 month prior to expiry. I then wished to transfer it out. It was locked for two months forcing me to renew with godaddy against my will. That was after I decided to pull all of my names out. One last mohekan and I thought I had my hands washed of godaddy. It would seem that we should be able to get an account of our own with any registrar we want for the bulk transfer. The 60-day deal is standard for registrars. However, my concerns with GoDaddy go way beyond that. I used them and found them to have some very nasty policies in place, where they can actually hijack your domain for specious reasons. I talked them out of it, but left anyway to avoid further problems. Of course, if GoDaddy is the only registrar with proper financial resources who wants take on this mess, well, I suppose that's it. But they are not the ideal solution by any means. Peace, Gene

domain_guy - that would be a third concern Registered | 2007-05-24 14:49:45 I was not speaking of the created date, as that is normal to put a 60 day hold on. godaddy has their own imposed 60 day rule upon transfer into them. Aside from that, complaints about a domain can have it disapear. I think godaddy would do better in communist china.

Domain_expired_help - contact search partner- expire Registered | 2007-05-25 04:51:38 Before I complain about my issue. MOST IMPORTANT POINT TO READ: I believe all of us should first find out who is providing the search feed to register for expired domains and raise some hell. Complain to the company that is providing the search feed and let them know that registerfly is stealing from cusomers Here's my story: I have 6 Domains which are critical to our business which expired on May 23rd. I've been trying to transfer for 2 months but no authorization code! This is costing us a lot of money and what I dont understand is that how can RegisterFly be allowed to receive search traffic on my domains. Bascially as soon as a domain expires then they are redirecting the DNS to expirefly.com and receiving search traffic. This is unethical and wrong! 1) They are not let me transfer out the domains to another register, can not receive an authorization code. 2) I've been trying to transfer domain for 2-3 months, and now they expired and they have redirected domain traffic to there servers? 3) Who is the search partner? I believe we all should complain to the search partner that is paying out to register fly. They should be called out! Please help to transfer over the domain registration information since we are lousing serious amounts of money. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP! CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication and any accompanying document(s) are privileged and confidential and are intended for the sole use of the addressee(s). If you have received this transmission in error, you are advised that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or the taking of any action in reliance upon it is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately delete it and contact us at the email listed. This electronic communication is intended for information purposes only.

Domain_expired_help - Petition Needed - contact goog Registered | 2007-05-25 08:30:21 Google Providing Search Feed to RegisterFly - READ BELOW Please report to Google Adsense and let them know that registerfly is transferring expired domains to expirefly.com DNS and earning money money on a per click basis off of our expired domains. This is bad because: 1) reigsterfly does not allow user to transfer the domain 2) this means that registerfly is sending fraudulent pay per click traffic to google via adsense. Resistefly has stolen the use of the domain and is receiving money on traffic from websites in a deceptive manner. WE MUST LET GOOGLE KNOW AND GOOGLE ADVERTISERS KNOW THEY GOOGLE IS supporting KNOWINGLY OR UNKNOWING A Con artist. 3) Here is a link URL for contacting Google: 4) here is the partner URL: 5) Basically every domain that has expired is going to expirefly.com (a registerfly company) and they are generating money :- (

admin - Please no long urls Super Administrator | 2007-05-25 08:37:32 I deleted this url in this post because it threw the page off. Please post this kind of stuff in the forum.

Domain_expired_help - Added link, but broke it up so Registered | 2007-05-25 09:58:51 I broke up URL by hitting enter so that if someone wants to report to google the feed that RegisterFly is using then they can easily see it in this post. Again I am pissed that registerfly is making search traffic money off of my customers because I can not renew my domain. Dotster is involved or not I do not know, but any company that is working with RegisterFly should be pressured to stop the relationship with shady companies. http%3A%2F%2Fpagead2.googlesyndication.com%2Fpagead%2Ficlk%3Fsa%3Dl%2 6ai%3DB43VcA51WRsObCpK4VrqFnMMCz8qqFbeA__kBwI23AaD -ChABGAEg-ZqFBigKM AA4AFDU_d7nBmDluuSDpA6YAdHvoAOqAQUwMTUwMbIBEzE4ODh zZW5kZmxvd2Vycy5jb 23IAQHaARtodHRwOi8vMTg4OHNlbmRmbG93ZXJzLmNvbS-AAgGpArukYkrBpsA-qAMB6 APDAvUDQAAAAA%26num%3D1%26adurl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2F www.bellefleur.co.uk%2Findex.cfm %2Fgog_ad%2F3%26client%3Dca-dp-dotster26_3ph_xml&i=ca-dp-dotster26_3ph_xml Again please anyone clear up any point if its incorrect. Again report this to google so that registerfly stops making money off of our expired domains!

Domain_expired_help - Digg the post if helpful Registered | 2007-05-25 10:20:40 I'm submitted the suggestion to contact google regarding registerfly generating revenue via expired domains. At least let them know this is happening. If helpful digg it here: (I have pressed entered to break up the link, so if helpful then digg it so that our expired domains no longer support registerfly. http://digg.com/tech_news/ Petition_Needed_Contact_ Google_G_working_with_ Registerfly_via_stolen_domain

admin - Thank you Super Administrator | 2007-05-25 11:58:18 Thank you for breaking up the link. There must be another solution for linking within comments without breaking the css of the page. That will be something on the update list.

cymoo - TAXABLE RICO COMPENSATION Registered | 2007-05-25 12:32:07 Do you think we are going to be receiving U S currency compensation for all the illegal advertising profits that accrued from the extorted domain property during the time of our loss of our sites? Maybe they will apply the taxable profits that were made with the stolen property to the damage that has been done to our domain property during the high speed police chase. Just how much fun is it going to be getting back ALL THE BITES AND PIECES of our stolen property? For some of us this will be the first time we have every received back stolen property from the authorities. Of course I guess it is a little bit early to be thinking about COMPENSATION. Oh, I almost forgot. Thanks a lot (?) (??) (???) (????) (?????) etc.

JohnCell - URLs in posts Registered | 2007-05-25 13:25:19 Here's a great time-tested solution for putting links in posts: use http://tinyurl.com. Additionally, when you use this forum's "write comments" feature, there is a hyperlink button to the right of the underscore button. That's how I put the link onto http://tinyurl.com (in both places). Here's a tinyurl for this forum: http://tinyurl.com/2m2eec

admin - That's ingenious! Super Administrator | 2007-05-25 14:15:33 Talk about a good way to build link popularity... thanks for the link but I have to say that I admire that site and the system they've put together. Ingenious!

JohnCell - Jail? Registered | 2007-05-25 13:30:59 So it's now 10:30 Pacific Time, and Kevin Medina was due in court 30 minutes ago. Anybody suppose that he's in jail yet?

captainproton - re:Jail? Registered | 2007-05-25 18:12:30 That's some kind of irony. The day Kevin heads to jail is the day domain name holders experience freedom. But alas, he once again escapes the grips of justice and continues to weasel along. It looks like he actually showed his ass up today http://blog.icann.org/?p=131#comments So once again we are left waiting, and yet another line in the sand is drawn for June 1. One can only wonder if this is the final hill. 48 hours - that's Sunday - we should see a notice on RF's website. Maybe then we can celebrate memorial day remembering our fallen domain names.

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